Dead by Dawn
by filmFreak1
Summary: Oneshot crossover with the Living Dead universe created by George Romero. The zombie plague has decimated the world, and one of the Scoobies who has become one of the walking dead meets a familiar face. A darkfic that is both horrific and sweet.


**Title:** Dead by Dawn

**Author:**filmFreak1

**Disclaimer:**Oh, don't I wish I owned them.

**Rated:** T (violent content)

**Summary:** One-shot crossover between the Buffy series and the Living Dead films created by George Romero. A zombie plague has decimated the planet. One of the Scoobies, who has become one of the many undead, runs into a familiar face.

**Spoilers:** None, really; you don't really need to have seen any of either of these two fandoms.

**Feedback:**would be very highly appreciated. As always, criticism is accepted, but try to be constructive.

It is night now, and the moon is shining brightly. Her left leg doesn't hurt anymore, not since she became one of them; the dead don't feel pain, after all. Still, the missing chunks of flesh (the ones torn off by the bites that led to her death and then her current state) are enough to force her to limp.

The city streets seem so quiet now, compared to what they were only months before. There is no traffic, no honking horns, no people talking or shouting; the few cars remaining on the streets have been long abandoned.

She sees many others of her kind shambling around aimlessly, like her. They only glance at her long enough to know that she is one of them before continuing to shuffle along at their own, slow pace. They all moan softly, creating a strange, unsettling harmony.

She hears a sound to her left, and turns to see what it is; the others' moaning becomes louder, and they turn and start heading in the direction of the sound.

Initially, she believes she is seeing a man trying to fend off several of the walking dead. She decides to turn and start heading that direction with the others. As she gets closer, however, the moonlight reveals that the man has a seemingly disfigured face featuring yellow eyes and pointed teeth; he also seems to be doing fairly well in defending himself. Unlike the others, she knows that this man is, in fact, a vampire. Unlike the others, she knows that vampire flesh is cold; it is not food. Disappointed, she turns and limps away as the others slowly walk in the vampire's direction.

A few hours and a few miles later, the sun has started to appear on the horizon. As she continues to limp along, she is surprised to see one of the others come up to her and start moaning. The light of the sunrise reveals that this one is a young blonde female.

The darker-haired one is initially puzzled; does she know the blonde? She looks over the blonde, who is a few years older than her and is wearing jeans and a green t-shirt. The shirt has a huge rip in it that runs up the middle from the bottom to about the middle of the chest, revealing both a pink lace bra and the fact that the blonde is lacking most of her insides. Additionally, her right arm is missing from just a few inches below the shoulder; dry blood surrounds the stump. Clearly, the blonde did not die a pleasant death.

Then the younger one notices the blonde's neck. There is scar tissue on the right side, which she recognizes as having been left over from a vampire bite. On the left side is a fresher bite, done by human teeth, and which has not healed.

Suddenly, it hits her: _she _is the one who put the more recent bite on the blonde's neck.

Pieces of memories begin to go through the darker-haired girl's mind: the blonde taking care of her when her mother died; the blonde jumping off a tower; the blonde training her to slay vampires; the blonde and her sitting on the couch together watching the initial news reports of the dead rising. All memories from before either of them became what they are now.

And then some of the newer memories hit: a zombie biting the younger one on the leg and then the blonde subsequently killing it; the blonde crying and holding the younger one as she died (the bite had hit an artery); the younger one waking up and biting a chunk out of the blonde's neck, causing blood to spurt everywhere and the blonde to scream in pain and shock; tearing open the blonde's t-shirt and then her stomach and beginning to eat her insides as the blonde struggled weakly (the blood loss had been great by that point); and then afterward tearing off her arm and choking down the flesh on it, before limping out the door and leaving the remains behind.

She looks the blonde in the face. Sure, the blonde's face is now a grayish-blue thanks to the beginnings of decomposition, but it is nevertheless recognizable.

She tries to say "Buffy", but it comes out more like "uh-ee". The blonde seems to understand, however, and nods in a jerking fashion, moaning as she does so. Buffy uses her one hand to point in the direction of the sunrise and then back at the darker-haired one, who understands that the blonde is trying to say that she knows her name: Dawn.

Dawn wants to tell her older sister that she's sorry for killing and eating her, but she doesn't know how to form the words; all she can do is moan sadly. Buffy seems to know what Dawn is trying to say, and wraps her remaining arm around her sister, hugging her tightly, as if to say "All is forgiven." They will never leave each other again.

They began walking together side by side through the streets, as dawn gives way to day.

--

_A/N: If you have not seen George Romero's Living Dead films, I suggest you go out and rent them ASAP. At the very least, watch _Night of the Living Dead_ (the black-and-white 1968 original) and _Dawn of the Dead_(the 1978 original, not the 2004 remake); no one can call themselves a zombie fan if they ain't seen those two._

_My immediate inspiration for this fic was a song by the band Showbread titled "George Romero Will Be at Our Wedding"._

_As always, I beg you to leave feedback, even if you didn't like this story._


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